Lyco Art: The Story of Lyrical Conceptualism

By Paul Hartal

In Paul Hartal’s Lyco Art, the act of creation inexorably interweaves the logic of passion with the passion of logic through the voyage of consciousness.

Paul Hartal, the originator of lyco art, or lyrical conceptualism, presents a stimulating and meaningful panorama of a new element on the periodic table of art. This book is a significant contribution to the development of contemporary art and the history of ideas.

Similar to his approach to poetry, Paul Hartal’s vision of paintings (views) identifies the heart of art as the art of the heart: Love is the most important journey of life and its final destination. We come to this world through love in order to love and to be loved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Aug 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685627232

Paul Hartal

An award-winning artist and poet, Paul Hartal’s painting, “Flowers for Cézanne,” won the Prix de Paris in 1978 and was exhibited in the Luxembourg Museum in the French Capital. He displayed his oeuvre in museums and galleries in New York, Saint Petersburg (Russia), Montreal, Budapest, Seoul and many other venues. With the 1975 publication of A Manifesto on Lyrical Conceptualism, Hartal introduced a new element onto the periodic table of art. Lyrical Conceptualism, or Lyco Art, views the creative process as the interaction of emotion and intellect. In Lyco Art, the passion of logic and the logic of passion are inexorably interwoven through the voyage of consciousness. Lyco Art identifies the meaning of art with its life serving purpose. It also expands the boundaries of aesthetics through constructing a bridge between art and science. In 1986, Hartal founded in Montreal the Center for Art, Science and Technology endorsed by renowned scientists and artists, among them the Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, the mathematician Paul Halmos and the artist Victor Vasarely. Hartal also had founded the Lyrical Conceptualist Society, which organized exhibitions, including the first International Concrete Poetry event in Montreal.

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About the Author

An award-winning artist and poet, Paul Hartal’s painting, Flowers for Cézanne, won the Prix de Paris in 1978 and was exhibited in the Luxembourg Museum in the French Capital. He displayed his oeuvre in museums and galleries in New York, Saint Petersburg (Russia), Montreal, Budapest, Seoul and many other venues.

With the 1975 publication of A Manifesto on Lyrical Conceptualism, Hartal introduced a new element onto the periodic table of art. Lyrical Conceptualism, or Lyco Art, views the creative process as the interaction of emotion and intellect. In Lyco Art, the passion of logic and the logic of passion are inexorably interwoven through the voyage of consciousness. Lyco Art identifies the meaning of art with its life serving purpose. It also expands the boundaries of aesthetics through constructing a bridge between art and science.

In 1986, Hartal founded in Montreal the Center for Art, Science and Technology endorsed by renowned scientists and artists, among them the Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, the mathematician Paul Halmos and the artist Victor Vasarely. Hartal also had founded the Lyrical Conceptualist Society, which organized exhibitions, including the first International Concrete Poetry event in Montreal.

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Paul Hartal 2023

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Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Hartal, Paul

Lyco Art

ISBN 9781685627218 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781685627225 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781685627232 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023906856

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

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Acknowledgment

My sincere thanks are extended to the remarkable group of people who provided inspiration and support in the creation of this book.

I would like to express my profound gratitude and indebtedness to my wonderful editor, Emma Jensen, for her work, help and friendship.

Also, I owe much to the artists, writers, scholars, and scientists, who throughout the years have been involved with the Lyrical Conceptualist Society and the Center for Art, Science and Technology. Through my interactions with them they have significantly contributed to the development of the theory and practice of Lyco Art.

I would also like to convey my heartfelt thanks to my family for their love and support.

Introduction

I view all paintings as visual portals of the mind and the soul. Through the artist’s vision, paintings shape and frame the amorphous chaos of the world. Artworks are aesthetic reflections, symbols of inner processes, metaphors of the physical environment, allegories of our existence, creative expressions of beauty and ugliness. Art invites us to step into a deeper level of reality that lies under the peel of surface appearances. I believe that the creative power of art can play a pivotal role in ameliorating the human condition, in making the planet a habitable and welcoming environment for ourselves and for future generations.

The idea of Lyco Art represents a watershed in my artistic development. Moreover, it also represents a new element on the Periodic Table of Art. The genesis of Lyco Art dates back to A Manifesto on Lyrical Conceptualism which I published in the spring of 1975 in Montreal. Lyrical Conceptualism, or Lyco Art, advances the notion of art as a totality.

This means not merely that the scope and range of art extends to every field of human interest but that the creative process of art engages the entire gamut and scale of the artist’s expressive powers. The act of creation may involve every aspect of emotion and reason. All the unconscious and conscious elements on the psychological coordinates of id, ego and superego participate in the process. Body, mind, soul and spirit interact and function in unison.

The overarching attributes inherent in Lyco Art transcend the opposed tendencies that characterize the momentous movements of Art History. Throughout history, art moved between the inconsistent, even antagonistic poles of the rational and the emotional, swinging on a dynamic pendulum of the creative process between Apollonian and Dionysian impulses. Thus, the aesthetic styles of the Greco‐Roman world and of the Renaissance were basically harmonious, geometrical, and conceptual. Likewise, Gothic and Baroque art were characterized by sinuosity, passion and lyricism. Moreover, Impressionism, Fauvism, Dada and Surrealism, as well as other movements in modern art, derive a great deal of their energy from the irrational forces of the human psyche, whereas currents such as Cubism, Constructivism, Geometric Abstraction and Op Art are more related to the rational realm of creativity.

Lycoism approaches the act of creation as an interactive process of emotion and intellect. As an aesthetic‐semantic system blending together poetic, intuitive and cognitive ingredients, Lyco Art constructs a conscious bridge between the passion of logic and the logic of passion. The application of the theory of Lycoism to painting and design gives rise to coded expression of colors and forms. Accordingly, warm hues and amorphous shapes may symbolize feelings and emotions, while cold colors and geometric forms may correspond to logic and planning.

Traditionally, emotion is regarded as an irrational component that hinders clear thinking. Subscribers to this credo hold that emotions are irrational sorties, the enemies of clear thinking and reason. They assert that feeling, sentiment and passion cloud logic, derail lucid perception and derange judgment. Actually, the assertion holds some water. After all a fiery outburst of anger or a temper tantrum obviously represent illogical spasms. However, reality is not constructed from black and white bricks.

So let us bear in mind that certain emotions can enhance reason. Passion and excitement, for example, are indispensable modules of the act of creation. Painting and poetry, music and art, and even science, cannot exist without them. Or consider curiosity. It is a rather perilous emotion which can kill more than a cat. Yet curiosity also represents a vital ingredient of science. It fuels inquisitive thinking and learning. It supports research and motivates exploration. Indeed, and interestingly enough, in 2011 NASA launched from Cape Canaveral a robotic rover named ‘Curiosity,’ engaging it in an explanatory mission of the Gale Crater on Mars.

Furthermore, the act of creation also implicates another stirring emotional component, the exploratory quest: the excitement induced in sailing the inscrutable ocean of the unknown. The voyage through uncharted territories stimulates us; the relentless exploration to penetrate and discover the deepest secrets in ourselves and in the universe arouses heightened fervor. The most beautiful experience we can have, says Albert Einstein, is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion, which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.

But let us go back to Lyrical Conceptualism. Lyco Art is not an aesthetic strait‐jacket. It does not impose any formal limitations on artistic freedom. It merely suggests.

Similarly to Surrealism, Lyco Art arises more as an attitude than a style. Some people want complete artistic freedom. They reject every form of Ism. But complete artistic freedom cannot exist. Artists do not work in a vacuum and No‐ism is also an Ism. Personally, I do not see art as an ivory tower. Art is not for its own sake. I believe, for instance, that art must concern itself with science and technology because in our post‐industrial society science and technology determine our lifestyle. At the same time, one of the major goals of art is the humanization of the environment and therefore science and technology should not be our masters but our servants.

Intuition and imagination play a salient role in both art and science. Transcending the state of existing conditions necessitates innovative leaps into uncharted areas. Consequently, the cognitive faculty of creative imagination is more important in advancing the human condition than the inert body of knowledge.

The rise of Conceptual Art in the USA during the 1960s introduced into art an array of revolutionary ideas, spreading rapidly from there to other countries as well. The Conceptualists presented their work in photographs, maps, charts, photocopies, statements, and documents. They explained their thoughts and intentions in a self‐referential manner, fusing the role of the artist with the function of the critic. They claimed that the nature of art is conceptual and that the essence of art is the idea.

I think the Conceptualists hit the nail on the head in many respects. But I have rejected their agenda when I realized that for them, traditional painting and sculpture were obsolete, intellectually worthless decorations. The aim of the Conceptualists was the dematerialization of art. They wanted to liberate art from aesthetics by eliminating morphology, style, tradition and object. They conceived art as information, language and process. In their frame of mind there was no room or need for the past. They saw art history as a useless subject. The study and analysis of beauty annoyed them. Instead, they looked for science and philosophy as superior models of knowledge and reason that art should emulate.

I disagree on many points. Let me start with science. In my opinion, science can learn a great deal from art. Ignoring or eliminating the subjective aspects from the fabric of reality, as science does, does not make the world more objective. Consequently, science in its present form is unscientific. Moreover, the world of the scientist is not closer to reality than the world of the artist.

The belief that science can deliver us ultimate truths is a myth. The evidence for this comes from the scientific method itself. For example, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle in quantum physics and Gödel’s incompleteness theorem in mathematics indicate the systemic limits of science. Its intrinsic weakness prevents science from penetrating into the deep fabric of reality. By and large, the most advanced physical research currently is characterized by the search for a Theory of Everything. Physics today occurs in a fantasy realm of mathematical abstractions. Without being able to support their work by empirical evidence, physicists pursue infinitesimal strings and membranes vibrating in a hyperspace of ten or more dimensions in imaginary parallel universes.

Another important aspect of Lyco Art concerns its relationship to Conceptualism. Lycoism is not a branch of Conceptual Art. As a matter of fact, in more than one way, I view Lyco Art as a theory and practice which are diametrically opposed to Conceptual Art. Unlike Conceptual Art, Lycoism advocates historical continuity. The past is important because our identity is built on memory. Throwing away paintings and sculptures is an act of alienation, a self‐destructive assault against our collective memory. We need our cultural heritage for our own survival.

Objects of art are precious treasures impregnated with imagination, beauty and knowledge. They humanize our technological world, enrich our soul and mind. They also protect us against the damage caused by the turbulent intensity of life in the electronic age, against the stressful excesses of our automated society. In contrast to Conceptual Art, Lycoism embraces the search for beauty and meaning as a pivotal motivating impulse of the human experience.

I envision art and science as symbolic endeavors through which humanity explores, structures and interprets reality. There is art in science and science in art. Still, compared to the rational and objective methods of science, art offers an approach energized by intuition and immersed in subjectivity. Nevertheless, art is completely concrete, and therefore a significant source of authentic empirical knowledge. In certain respects, this form of concrete knowledge even surpasses the epistemological value of the mathematical abstractions of science because genuine knowledge can be only achieved by the experience of the senses, and art is based on sensory realization.

Comparatively speaking, Euler’s magnificent mathematical equations are not more brilliant, or more meaningful, than the triumphant melodies of Vivaldi’s masterpiece, The Four Seasons. In the same manner, Newton’s infinite abstract space is no closer to reality than the blue sky in a Rembrandt painting. Also, if you take Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, in the final analysis, it does not reveal more ultimate truths about the transcendental cosmos than the artworks of Picasso’s universe.

Manifesto

In the winter of 1975 I had a solo exhibition of my paintings in Montreal. The show opened on a cold January evening at the Jacquie Gallery on Stanley Street, not far from the Peel metro station in downtown. It was snowing and someone mentioned that Moscow and Montreal compete for the title of the snowiest big cities in the world. He did not say if the competition was about the highest average of snowfall or the number of snowy days.

People approached me and they talked about many things, mostly trivial, but also posed some intriguing questions. Stimulating conversations filled up the evening and on the way home I decided to make a formal declaration about the ideas and aims underlying my work.

It appeared in print in a four‐page long document, dated April 16, 1975, titled, A Manifesto on Lyrical Conceptualism, the announcement was printed on white cardboard paper and illustrated with black and white images of my paintings.

I don’t belong to any particular art stream, the Manifesto begins, "I am an individualist with socio‐historical consciousness and Gothic spirit; my art is based on the fusion of the biotic with the geometrical. For my part art is a mode of inquiry and a manner of living. I define my art as Lyrical Conceptualism."

My art is a painted metaphor, the Manifesto continues, the past machine of a perpetual second, the fossil emotion of an infinite longing, the magic desire evolving on the broken axis of the compressed space, reflected in the form of inner, personal, landscapes. Lyrical Conceptualism is the synthetical expression of the artist’s ardent emotions, aesthetical sensations, intuitions, ideas and concepts, which are stimulated by art tradition, philosophy and science, either in a cyclical or a dialectical way. Lyrical Conceptualism is a necessary stage in the evolution of Modern Art. Art is a cosmic expression. Like a magic mirror, art reflects the inexplicable, the unattainable and the inexpressible. Art also reflects human nature. Thus, Art ought to be total. The biotic separated from the geometrical is arbitrary, and ignores human nature.

Lyrical Conceptualism is based on the wholeness of the psychological coordinate, it is Art which derives from the id, ego and superego; it is art in which the primarily twofold character of the artist’s view evolves into a lyrical, intuitive, and conceptual triad. Besides line, rhythm, form, mass, space, tone, color and texture—which in themselves have expressive powers—Lyrical Conceptualism composes in a traditional manner, and applies words as energetic, vital elements in the creative process. Tools like duplicate machines, computers, and especially cameras, are used as creative partners, which extend man’s natural limitations and through them, to a certain extent, an evolution of Art ‘out’ of the artist occurs. Compared to the ‘rational,’ ‘objective’ methods of science, art offers an ‘irrational’ and ‘subjective,’ but entirely concrete approach, because real knowledge can be only achieved by the experience of the senses, and art is based on sensorial realization. Art is dialogue with ideas, conceptions and plastic profiles.

The Manifesto goes on and says that Art is not a medium to transit the visible, but a substance which creates it in the form of visible metaphysics. I am aware that Art is beyond definition and limits; however, I consider the recent tendency of aesthetic withdrawal as an interesting pseudo‐antithesis. Beauty is an eternal substance, and the need for it, is an everlasting one. Then let us go back to beauty and integrate it with another eternal need, the perpetual search for meaning and escape from chaos, which is embodied in abstraction and conceptualism. In a world of confusion, embarrassment, pollution, mass education, alienation and violence, Art is an oasis of redemption, and people are anxious for beauty and meaning. In this situation, the artist has many roles. He shows unique phenomena that only he can show by means of his creativeness. Art is power, and the artist has to use his power in fighting material and spiritual evils. The artist creates visual stimuli, and contributes to the emotional and intellectual development of man; he also provides environmental enrichment and qualities of ‘disorder’ for the sake of protection against the enormous psychological damage, which is caused to individuals and family territorialism by our functional, uniform and over‐organized society.

Ethics and Aesthetics

A new idea on the periodic table of art, Lyrical Conceptualism, or Lyco Art, is a holistic theory of creativity concerned with inclusive culture and the human condition. As a broad theory and practice of creativity, Lyco Art engages the entire scale of formative energies through transformative vision in which aesthetics evolves as ethics.

Lyrical Conceptualism blends the rational with the intuitive and the emotional. In the forefront of its